One year! And a hurricane…

One year ago, my husband, 6 week old baby girl, my father, and I made the long plane trip to our new home: Puerto Rico!

At the Jacksonville airport for the first leg of the trip. Gabriela was 6 weeks old and was a rockstar: she slept during both flights!

I can’t believe it’s been a year. These last two months, between Gabriela turning ONE and our one year anniversary in PR, have been truly amazing. I never imagined my life would be truly as wonderful as it is: a beautiful, healthy little daughter and living out one of our dreams on an island.

Gabriela’s first morning in PR!

When the husband had declared Puerto Rico as his first choice of duty stations we were still trying to get pregnant. We had experienced a miscarriage in 2012 and I think that really made us want to live our lives to the fullest and explore all that we can (CARPE DIEM) so why not Puerto Rico?!!? We didn’t ever think, however, that we’d have a newborn when this new adventure would begin but, hey, what can you do?

first time little one stepped in the ocean

I can honestly say that it was incredibly daunting moving to a ‘foreign’ country where we didn’t know the language (well, at least for my husband. I can talk some mean Spanglish and my father is fluent), didn’t know anyone, nor how the country worked. You hear stories of this and that but until you get there and experience it, the stories don’t matter. We had some trying days but those days were met with meeting a lot of incredibly sweet and kind-hearted people who went out of their way to help us. In the year we have lived here I can honestly say that we have never come across anyone who was cold or nasty to us:the Puerto Rican people all have a big heart and (most) want to represent their county in the best possible way. Now their driving…that’s a whole other matter!

As I mentioned, we heard different takes of life on the island ranging from someplace great to get out while you can. But the husband and I are ones to experience something for ouseselves and decide on our own. We went into this with an open mindset, knowing things would be strange and different but always looking for the positive (I’m still sometimes working on that positive bit myself) but so far, it’s been amazing. This really was the best decision we could have made!

how cool to soend your first christmas on a beach!

So in looking back, there’s no regrets about our decision to come here. Everyday we wake up and are thankful for a healthy family and for the beautiful place that we live in. Now that Gabi is getting bigger we wil be able to explore different places and do a lot more adventures so we are totally looking forward to this upcoming year and many more years after.
I really can’t thank my husband enough for all his hard work and dedication to get us to where we are today. I know I’m a handful and then to welcome my father to live with us, we’ll, that takes a special man and I’m lucky to have found him. He always puts me ,and now Gabriela, first and we can’t appreciate him enough.

Here’s to another great year! ¡Salud!

my little familia ❤️

On a side note: there’s a hurricane heading our way: Hurricane Danny. This will be our first since moving here. Word around the campfire is that it’s going to dissipate once it hits the Carribean waters so we may not actually get anything. In case there is a storm surge (and by the way, we’re on the western side of the island) we have our hurricane party all set up with beach chairs and Don Q. But seriously, we’re hoping for nothing too bad but we really do need the rain as some cities are rationing water right now. I’ll keep you posted!

Happy 1 year! It’s crazy how fast time slips right by us, huh? You and your family are beautiful!
I read your Update post and am glad your should be safe from Danny.Best of luck with any weather that poses a problem, and hope to see another good update soon!